This should strengthen the position of the unions. While the civil service has been suffering from a severe lack of attractiveness for several years, the organisations representing public employees tirelessly repeat that improving the remuneration of public servants would partly respond to this crisis. Indeed, a decade of “freezing the index points” has led to wages stagnating. Significantly revalued in 2022 (+3.5%), this tool, which serves as a basis for calculating civil servants’ salaries, had not changed since 2010, except for a 1.5% increase in two stages during François Hollande’s mandate in 2016.
But the 2022 revaluation took place in such an inflationary context that it did nothing to stop the fall in agents’ salaries. According to a note published on Thursday, September 19, by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee), salaries in the three aspects of the public service (territorial, hospital and state) fell in 2022 compared to inflation.
The most notable decline concerns the state civil service. Taking into account the level of inflation (5.2% in 2022, 1.6% in 2021), the average net salary in constant euros decreases by 2.2%, in all states combined. However, the amount recorded in the pay slip increased in 2022. On average, these agents now receive 2,743 euros net per month, 2.9% more than in 2021. This is the result of the revaluation of the points index, the increase in the minimum wage index and the three increases in the minimum wage (which is indexed to inflation), which will take place in 2022.
But these measures do not match the inflation rate in 2022 and therefore do not prevent wages from falling. Thanks to the provisions adopted in favour of low wages, civil servants in category C are the least affected (– 0.6%) compared to those in categories B (– 2.4%) and A (– 1.8%). Another lesson from the INSEE study is that pay equality between men and women is not yet complete. Even with an identical profile (age, experience, qualifications, etc.) and the same type of employer, women’s wages are 3% lower.
In 2024, a feared “white year”
Salaries are falling less sharply in the other two sectors. In the territorial civil service, the average net salary in constant euros fell by 1.1%, whereas it was already declining in 2021 (-0.5%). As a result, agents working for the department receive an average of 2,351 euros net per month while remuneration in the municipalities reaches 2,021 euros. Only the public hospital service considers that its situation has not really worsened. Thus, the average net salary in constant euros fell by 0.4%. The 2020 Ségur health agreements, which led in particular to revaluations of the scales, partly explain this better resistance of salaries to inflation compared to other sectors of the civil service.
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